Professionals Serendipity 
A revealing interview with Denby Browning, President of Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens Incorporated, the not-for-profit organisation whose job is to manage the Mountain’s beautiful Botanic Garden, shows how it’s thrived even in the face of adversity.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How long have you been involved with managing the Botanic Gardens?
Personally – it’s been about five years. My partner and I moved onto the mountain at the end of 2012. We found ourselves with three quarters of an acre but no garden, and thought we’d better learn to build one. She joined the Garden Club which managed the Botanic Gardens. That led to me volunteering. I’m not allowed to do anything except weeding. I’m too dangerous. When the Botanic Gardens split from the Garden Club in 2018, I joined the committee as they needed marketing support, which is my background. There was a need to spread the idea of what the Botanic Gardens was/is/does and why people should volunteer. Then in June of last year the then-president stepped down and I became president.
How do you feel it’s evolved since you came onboard?
It evolved slowly, in bits and pieces as money became available. Council built the toilet block and paved the carpark. We built this pavilion and all of the other infrastructure. The only thing that was here before we started was the stone bridge. That was built in the 70s, and nobody knows why. The garden is going through a transformation right now. When we split from the Garden Club we had to restructure and come up with a new organisation. It’s exciting for everybody, I think.
What do you think is the main attraction that draws people here?
The lakes, the orchid house, the Japanese garden—I get reviews on Google all the time writing that they loved the Japanese garden… The real hit is the Sooty Owl Creekside Trail. That’s designed for kids particularly. It goes through the rainforest and there’s lots of information signs. It’s been enormously successful. The next big project is building new trails to take people into parts of the gardens they may not know about, like an interactive guide.
You host several events, from plant sales to weddings and even theatre productions. Can you tell us more?
We have a fantastic group called the Potty Potters! They propagate plants for the gardens. They end up with a lot left over that we can sell and that’s one of our main sources of income. Every few months we’ll have a giant plant sale: we had one at the end of January and we made nearly 3000 dollars in one morning. It’s fantastic. We are going to start talking seriously in the very near future about bigger events. Musical events, cultural events… The little theatre company came to us and what we do is make a space available, help and provide resources. We would like to encourage that in the future. We’ve held concerts here as well. I think that’s going to be a big thing for the future, because we have this beautiful amphitheatre here, and another, which can hold 250 with no trouble on a sloping lawn. Those sorts of things are great opportunities to engage with the community as well as raising funds.
Do you feel like a Mount Tamborine local? What’s your opinion on the area and community?
I love the area. One thing we learned very quickly was if you’re going to come to a small community you need to engage. As I said, my partner immediately went off to the Garden Club because we had this three quarters of an acre with nothing on it. I joined Land Care and that led us on to the Bridge Club, the Golf Club… And you find there’s this amazing cross-pollination. So suddenly you have this expanding group of friends and associates. If you come up here and just sit in your garden you’ll be isolated. Join the community, get involved and suddenly you’ve got this whole group of friends with similar interests. Everybody who visits wants to be here. Up here, there’s a whole different view of the world.
What do you think the Gardens provides to the area?
I think it provides a place for recreation, for socialisation, a place for kids to run around in, and a space for mental wellbeing. We have nine ‘contemplative sites’ in which people can sit on a bench and just look out at what’s ahead of them. It’s designed so the seating looks out at a particular area. There are people who come up here who are lonely, who are struggling, and they visit to sit in a corner and think, listen, and learn. It’s extremely important for the community to provide a space like that.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
Everything! The volunteers are a great group of people, they’re here because they WANT to be. I just like being around gardens. You come down here any day of the week and it’s just a glorious place to be. And now as president, to be steeped in it— there’s not anything that goes on in these gardens where someone isn’t grabbing me by the collar and dragging me over saying “come and have a look at this!” or “What do you think about that?” Just being totally involved in this organisation and developing it.
Do you have any standout stories from your time working here?
During the flooding, this whole area was just storming with water. I came down to see what damage we had and was very surprised to see that there was not that much. There was a lot of mess, but the infrastructure held up incredibly well. One of the nice things is that the volunteers come down and they just say “Okay, we’ve got a clean-up to do!” And they get in and within a couple of weeks everything’s back to normal.
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Or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com, and follow me on Twitter @realcasualrvws.
